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hi im ruri ive never used aikido in a street fight although after a while of doing it i had fast reflexes so when a guy tried to hook me at school i blocked the punch but i froze afterwards because i didnt have the mind set to use aikido then. i (luckly) have never needed to use it since. what about you guys? just interested y'know.

I had a guy at work grab me in a headlock to punch me in the face. I stepped back out under his arm and had a real good sankyo. Started to take him down and decided to let him go. After that he would never came within ten feet of me.

I had a guy at work grab me in a headlock to punch me in the face. I stepped back out under his arm and had a real good sankyo. Started to take him down and decided to let him go. After that he would never came within ten feet of me.

David

good on ya m8. takes fast thinking to assess the situation and then assign a technique to it well done m8

hi im ruri ive never used aikido in a street fight although after a while of doing it i had fast reflexes so when a guy tried to hook me at school i blocked the punch but i froze afterwards because i didnt have the mind set to use aikido then. i (luckly) have never needed to use it since. what about you guys? just interested y'know.

Hi Ruaridh,

At school you may find yourself in trouble if you start throwing your fellow students around, even if it's in self defence

Instead, work on your ability to get yourself off the line of attack and out of reach. Then you can encourage the attacker to over-reach himself, and stumble or fall, thereby making himself look like the clown he is

If anybody says anything, you can then say (with witnessess) "I never touched him"

The same applies outside of school, where a weapon is more likely to be used. You are much safer being out of the strike zone then staying in reach and trying to block the attack.

Talk to your Sensei about it as well - he can help you to practise for these situations

At school you may find yourself in trouble if you start throwing your fellow students around, even if it's in self defence

Instead, work on your ability to get yourself off the line of attack and out of reach. Then you can encourage the attacker to over-reach himself, and stumble or fall, thereby making himself look like the clown he is

If anybody says anything, you can then say (with witnessess) "I never touched him"

The same applies outside of school, where a weapon is more likely to be used. You are much safer being out of the strike zone then staying in reach and trying to block the attack.

Talk to your Sensei about it as well - he can help you to practise for these situations

Ruth

i would usually try. but my opponent always gets to riled up and throws a punch. im just worried i wont be able to use aikido im only yellow belt but i got my orange belt grading in 3 months. and i want to be able to have the mind state to use it when the need arrives

i would usually try. but my opponent always gets to riled up and throws a punch. im just worried i wont be able to use aikido im only yellow belt but i got my orange belt grading in 3 months. and i want to be able to have the mind state to use it when the need arrives

Ruaridh,

The most Aiki approach is to not get into the fight in the first place!

We don't go around looking for opponents, or get people 'riled up' so they turn to throwing a punch

There WILL be consequences for getting into a fight at school, so please think of that!!

Aikido teaches us to get along with people so well that we don't need to get into fights

At work, I always have to have a smart *** come to me and ask me "what would you do if.........."? I always tell them come to class, step on the mat, and find out. Still no takers!!!! I give no "on-the-spot" lessons, unless they grab me. Then they won't want another one.

Ah, you're only a yellow belt, you're still very young, like me. We haven't yet reached the level of "no sen" (no mind) that is like the nirvana for martial artists.
There is a guy training with us who in a Kyokushankai instructor. He told us that one day, while driving, he had a minor collision with another car. As they both climbed out of their cars, the other driver angrily charged him with a club. He's not so sure what happened next, but the poor chap flew past him so hard that he grabbed him to keep him from getting badly hurt. The guy stared at him opened mouthed for a second or two, then hurriedly climbed back in the safety of his car and drove off, all the while screaming obscenities.
As our friend started he own car, he wondered why he hadn't just punched the guy into a pulp, the way his previous instructors had trained him to do.
You and I will get there, I promise you.
Now, go train.

when i was a young kid, like 10 through 13. my friends and i would always fight with each other!
they would usually go for punches, kicks, and the oh-so-predictable headlocks. I found easier ways to save energy and ensure that i didn't get hurt in the process of taking them down.

in the next couple of years, I picked up an Aikido book in my schools library and had an AH HA! moment.

moral =

If you're honestly worried about your nerves and mindset... get a few friends to try and dogpile you, please be careful though! and don't let yourself get swept up in the moment and hurt anyone.

Guys there's plenty of stories around this forum about some of the more 'senior' members' real life experiences. As for myself, I've never (well almost) got into a fight outside of work (Military Police); so if I've managed it, then I'm sure you can.

Don't look for it and it won't find you.

Aikido doesn't work? My Aikido works, what on earth are you practicing?!

i would usually try. but my opponent always gets to riled up and throws a punch. im just worried i wont be able to use aikido im only yellow belt but i got my orange belt grading in 3 months. and i want to be able to have the mind state to use it when the need arrives

A few thoughts:

If you're already thinking about "when" the need arrives, be assured that it will.

If people are routinely starting fights with you at school, that's a problem that needs to be remedied with more than aikido.

At your current level of training, if you were to use aikido in a fight, I'd say there's an excellent chance that the best outcome would be that you hurt your opponent, possibly seriously. Are you ready to face the consequences of that? Are you confident that you could justify your use of force -- that you could convince parents, school authorities and the police that you had had no option but to use force in the degree that you did?

In summary, my advice is to keep your aikido to yourself in all ways, except when you're on the mat. Don't talk it up with people outside the dojo -- too many non-martial artists take any mention of martial arts training as some kind of challenge or confrontational statement, and if you do get in a fight, talk about training may come back to hurt you. Just keep it among the people who will get it.

Ahh... The joys of being female, and in one's late 40s. I can say I'm taking Aikido, and nobody takes it as any kind of challenge, or wants to go outside to see what I'm made of. LOL

I've never gotten into a fight. I was jumped once (long before having heard of Aikido), in junior high school, by a gang of 13 girls. The only good shot I got in was getting off the line of attack by dropping to the ground, unconscious, within seconds. A girl swinging at me failed to stop, and broke her hand punching the wall they'd had me backed up against. Yay me.

Women, I think, have to be more concerned about "being attacked" than "getting into fights." As for using Aikido on the street (and I do have to walk several blocks downtown, after dark, most days), I hope, as Ruth said, to use it to avoid trouble. Or at least to keep my head about me if trouble finds me.

Guys there's plenty of stories around this forum about some of the more 'senior' members' real life experiences. As for myself, I've never (well almost) got into a fight outside of work (Military Police); so if I've managed it, then I'm sure you can.

Don't look for it and it won't find you.

As an MP you will have the respect or fear of soldiers drunk or not, then there is your size which will also no doubt be a deterrent, and the confidence and training you get as an MP. a lot of us do not have those luxuries.
I do agree with what you say though, Ive had more fights than most have had hot dinners, in the long run it just made me a bullet magnet if you know what I mean.
RPD

i would usually try. but my opponent always gets to riled up and throws a punch. im just worried i wont be able to use aikido im only yellow belt but i got my orange belt grading in 3 months. and i want to be able to have the mind state to use it when the need arrives

unless you are already strong and fast (fit with contact conditioning from "street" or gym), no martial art will gets you prepared.

My guess is that something like three to ten plus years (or never, if your instruction and practice isn't "honest" and sustained enough) of training and fitness might get someone feeling prepared to respond to unarmed aggression and I'd imagine Aikido would take longer since a more forceful responses (reverse punch to face or side stomp kicks to knee, etc) are not considered.

Most often the Aikido (or Karate or Jujitsu or kickboxing) art works fine, but that yours may not.

"The state that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools."

There is a guy training with us who in a Kyokushankai instructor. He told us that one day, while driving, he had a minor collision with another car. As they both climbed out of their cars, the other driver angrily charged him with a club. He's not so sure what happened next, but the poor chap flew past him so hard that he grabbed him to keep him from getting badly hurt. The guy stared at him opened mouthed for a second or two, then hurriedly climbed back in the safety of his car and drove off, all the while screaming obscenities.
As our friend started he own car, he wondered why he hadn't just punched the guy into a pulp, the way his previous instructors had trained him to do.
You and I will get there, I promise you.
Now, go train.

good point, thanks

"The state that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools."

hi im ruri ive never used aikido in a street fight although after a while of doing it i had fast reflexes so when a guy tried to hook me at school i blocked the punch but i froze afterwards because i didnt have the mind set to use aikido then. i (luckly) have never needed to use it since. what about you guys? just interested y'know.

I don't know if after 1 year you still read here, but for some reason i found this thread on top.

You stalled.
That's one of the most typical outcomes when a fight is ignited between two persons who are not used to fight (I don't fight, but I have a boxing background where, in the gym, we routinely punched each other seriously many many years ago).

It is generated by two factors: fear (oh yes!) and sudden realization that the protected (at times hyper-protected) setting of a gym invested you with a wealth of notions that seem to apply no more in a real situation. For instance, in a real street fight forget iriminage, unless you really see a stupid and obtuse bull charging you headlong, which I doubt!

However, I have seen also experienced boxeurs that stalled. Sort of: hit and watch.

But you should not hit and watch - hit and watch the (alleged) effect is the hallmark of the amateur. You must hit and hit.

I wrote that disagreeable (and questionable, I know) sentence ("hit and hit") not because I am enouraging you to fight (don't do it - the chances of ___permanent___ harm to yourself are enormous: you may get harmed, you may harm your opponent and have to face the legal consequences of it to say the least if not look your back for years to come, or you may harm _yourself_ by _yourself_ - the last being way more common that one may think!). But I said that ugly line because if you want to have a "street" situation in mind, you haven't to envision a guy who hits and watches you or who stalls like you, but set your standard higer: envision a guy who hits and hits and never stalls - that is, envision true danger, if you really want to talk of a _street_ situation: everybody can beat a drunkard and come home believeing his aikido is amazing.

If you want to have a chance of dealing with a determined opponent competently, you have to train for it. If you have a chance I suggest this: go on with aikido as your martial art but see if you can attend a boxing gym where you can spar. You need to be hit. You need to see a furious foe who keeps throwing blows at you and who is not intimidated by yours (provided you manage to land them).

Nothing educates you to be in a fight like being in one weekly, and the only way to do it safely is to find a gym where combat is allowed - normally boxing gyms are such, but you need to verify, for you have to pass medical tests first.

If you train in a dojo where most of your training is with very compliant ukie's, you may become too confident until that confidence is shattered by a guy in the street that doesn't know he has to comply with you and your technique.

If you train in a dojo where most of your training is with very compliant ukie's, you may become too confident until that confidence is shattered by a guy in the street that doesn't know he has to comply with you and your technique.

If you train in a dojo where most of your training is with very compliant ukie's, you may become too confident until that confidence is shattered by a guy in the street that doesn't know he has to comply with you and your technique.

Minoru Mochizuki said. "Too much karate will make you aggressive, too much judo will make you passive, too much aikido will make you arrogant."

Quote:

Attilio Anthony John Wagstaffe wrote:

And here endeth the lesson..... amen!

+1

You will eventually find what you are looking for...

In a real fight:
* If you make a bad decision, you die.
* If you don't decide anything, you die.
Aikido teaches you how to decide.www.aikido-makato.nl

There is also the question of knowing when to act, which is something that is not really trained in a dojo setting. I mean, it's possible that you may find someone setting up to strike you such that you sense it and see it coming -- if you are training carefully in your dojo you should be honing your observational skills of what preparing to strike causes to happen in someone's posture and attitude. But more likely it will either be a sneak attack or an altercation that you are secondary to, and then have to make the decision whether to get involved or not.